BMC Infectious Diseases (Jan 2006)

Enzyme-linked immunoassay for dengue virus IgM and IgG antibodies in serum and filter paper blood

  • Tran Binh Q,
  • Le Hung Q,
  • Phan Giao T,
  • Hoang Lan,
  • de Vries Peter J,
  • Tran Thanh,
  • Vo Chi,
  • Nguyen Nam V,
  • Kager Piet A,
  • Nagelkerke Nico,
  • Groen Jan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-6-13
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
p. 13

Abstract

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Abstract Background The reproducibilty of dengue IgM and IgG ELISA was studied in serum and filter paper blood spots from Vietnamese febrile patients. Methods 781 pairs of acute (t0) and convalescent sera, obtained after three weeks (t3) and 161 corresponding pairs of filter paper blood spots were tested with ELISA for dengue IgG and IgM. 74 serum pairs were tested again in another laboratory with similar methods, after a mean of 252 days. Results Cases were classified as no dengue (10 %), past dengue (55%) acute primary (7%) or secondary (28%) dengue. Significant differences between the two laboratories' results were found leading to different diagnostic classification (kappa 0.46, p Conclusion Dengue virus IgG antibodies in serum and filter papers was not affected by duration of storage, but was subject to inter-laboratory variability. Dengue virus IgM antibodies measured in serum reconstituted from blood spots on filter papers were lower than in serum, in particular in the acute phase of disease. Therefore this method limits its value for diagnostic confirmation of individual patients with dengue virus infections. However the detection of dengue virus IgG antibodies eluted from filter paper can be used for sero-prevalence cross sectional studies.